Monday, January 31, 2011

Leangains Meal - Rest Day

Some of you following my blog may be wondering what I'm eating - when I am eating, that is. Going 16 hours a day without food is not that difficult most days. I only have trouble when I'm bored. Luckily I have a job that keeps me on my toes and a life that is quite full when I'm not at the office.

What I eat varies a bit depending on whether it's a rest day or a workout day. On workout days, I eat higher complex carbs/starchy veggies because my muscles have been greatly depleted of their glycogen stores through my short, yet intense workout. If your muscles are empty, there's plenty of room for glucose! Add to this the increased insulin sensitivity I'm creating within my system through a low sugar, low carb diet the rest of the time and when I do eat anything that is turned to sugar, my body cleans it up in no time, using the glucose for energy and refilling the stores in my muscles - leaving nothing to store as fat. Yes, it is that simple.
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Carbs I typically eat - brown and wild rice, whole-wheat pasta, small amounts of yams, corn, carrots...And not all the carbs I eat are "good." I ate an entire bag of gummy goodness last week at the movies and the other day I sucked down about 5 Oreos and a big glass of skim milk before bed. Mmmmmmm...Sweet treats aside, I always pair my carbs with LOTS of protein - 30g or more if possible as well as fats such as coconut oil, bacon grease, olive or canola oil, etc.

On non-workout days, I go lighter calories and really low carb - like today. Pictured above was today's lunch. Two Perdue chicken breasts, a pile of Romaine lettuce, red bell peppers, 1/2 cup of black beans, an ounce of shredded cheddar and a couple of tablespoons of chunky salsa. I couldn't finish it all!

Tonight's dinner was about 6 oz of ribeye steak, a handful of asparagus spears, some sauteed onions and a handful or two of fresh blueberries.

For the day, that puts me at the following macronutrient breakdown:

I know, I know, you see the cholesterol and sodium levels and freak out...well, I drink a TON of water and green tea all day and cholesterol isn't the devil it's been made out to be. More on that later.

For now, I wanted you to see that while I am only eating around 1,200 calories a day (I will have a casein shake or fluff before bed), I go to sleep satiated and wake up feeling fantastic every day. My energy has never been better and, in fact, I find it harder to fall asleep than I did before I started IF. I cannot go to bed before 10:30 when I used to be nodding off on the couch by 9 pm. I'm hitting personal records with EVERY trip to the gym (not surprising when you are as out of shape as I was) and I'm never tired anymore.

4 comments:

I'm really enjoying your blog! Can't wait to see the next posts, your eats look super yums. :D I made tuna burgers today for us, with lots of spice, organic tomato sauce in it, garlic, made it into patties and fry it up! Its fun trying to think up new lean eats.

I have been applying IF for the past 6 months, and like the effect it has on my mood and energy levels. I've not dropped weight, although I think I've built some more muscle. I think I'm not going low enough on calories on rest-days in order to create that deficit, and I think I'm not eating as much protein as I should in order to enable me to create that calorie deficit without feeling hungry.

@Lea -Initially on IF, I dropped about 8 lbs very quickly. I believe half of this was water weight caused by all of the salty snacks I used to enjoy on a regular basis.

I'm 5'2", but have been hovering around 119 lbs for weeks now. Since I'm working out w/heavy weights and getting stronger each week, I'm guessing I'm also adding muscle so I'm not too stressed about the scale.

I'm working on a blog about the details, but I stay around 1,300 calories a day. I go a bit over on workout days and I eat very little carbs on rest days. I'll get into a bit more detail in my next blog, but I can't stress enough how important calories are.

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About Me

Tomboy. Surfer. Gym Rat. I'm on a quest to get lean and mean. Join me as I explore the world of fitness through Intermittent Fasting and low volume, heavy weight training. I'm going to be a lean, mean, training machine...